Speaking out in favor of what you believe to be right is an all-American tradition, and so it was heartening to see young people from across Lewis County protesting in front of the courthouse last week in favor of going back to in-person school instruction.
However, it was hard to get past the fact that so few of those students and parents were wearing masks.
America is a land of liberty, but before freedom must come responsibility.
We all have a basic obligation during this pandemic that targets our elders and those who already have health struggles.
That starts with wearing masks to protect one another. Until our students demonstrate that they get this, they’re not showing that they’ll step up to make back-to-school a safe experience for each other, for their teachers, and for the families who will catch any viruses they spread.
Six months ago in this space, I wrote about the possibility that this could be our “Sept. 12 moment.” I wrote that the silver lining of the terrible loss of 9/11 was a surge of national unity and commitment to our common cause.
“All of us have a role to play in keeping ‘the least among us’ safe during the months ahead,” I wrote back then. “This won’t be like most disasters. It won’t come upon us and depart suddenly, like a blizzard or storm. We need to keep a good attitude and resolve for the long haul.”
At the time I wrote that, the pandemic had killed 5,103 people globally. As of this Friday, that number now stood at 951,606 deaths. That’s the difference between the amount of water in a bathtub compared with a swimming pool. Or to put it in more human scale, if the pandemic’s death toll six months ago was half the population of Mossyrock, by today it would have killed every person in Lewis County.
My grim worst-case scenario in March was a million American COVID-19 cases and 34,000 deaths by Mother’s Day. I didn’t dare speculate beyond that. Well, as summer turns to fall, America has now registered 6.8 million cases and 202,306 deaths.
The good news is that the lockdown this spring bought us time to better understand the virus, how to better treat it and how to prevent it. Doctors and scientists made good use of that time.
The death rate is down somewhat (although we’re also learning about mysterious, serious long-term complications from the virus even in healthy young people, the so-called “long-haulers.”)
We’ve learned that wearing masks helps prevent us from spreading the virus by containing the small water droplets that we all expel when we talk or breath, and which carry the virus to others. There is also evidence that those wearing a mask who are exposed may catch a much milder case of the disease, due to the lower level of infection from the partial filtration of even a non-N95 mask.
Clearly, wearing a mask offers protection and is a simple, smart way to help beat this virus.
“The data is clearly there that masking works,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield said back in July. “If we can get everybody to wear a mask right now, I really do think in the next four, six, eight weeks ... we can get this epidemic under control.”
In other words, if we had all come together back then, we’d be able to safely go back to school now.
But we didn’t.
Tragically, wearing a mask has become a matter of contention. (There’s no real scientific debate on it, despite the many sketchy social media posts claiming otherwise. I’ve read many of the studies referenced, and none that I’ve seen actually prove what the mask skeptics claim.)
I look at the story this week of an Idaho pastor, a vocal mask skeptic this summer, who has spent 11 days in intensive care with COVID-19. His wife, also sickened, said she hasn’t “taken this COVID seriously enough.”
Mask wearing shouldn’t be a political issue. It’s a matter of basic human kindness.
Of course people chafe against mandates. Nobody likes to be told what to do. In this case, we shouldn’t have to be told. I gladly wear a mask to protect my neighbors, and all I ask is the common courtesy for them to do the same.
And when it comes to returning to school, we need plans, rules and administrative commitment to hold students and parents to high standards to ensure a healthy environment for all.
I read today about parents in Attleboro, Mass., who sent their high school student to school even after he tested positive for COVID-19. Now 28 students who were in close contact with him are under quarantine.
We’re certainly at risk of the same things happening in our schools. If your student is quarantined, they’ll be back to virtual learning anyway. And when (not if) teachers get sick, who will teach our children, whether in person or on a screen?
Let’s take a step back to remember what education is about. We need to learn the 3 R’s, of course, but we’re also building up solid citizens. We’re learning to be Americans. This pandemic, with all its loss and heartache, is also a chance to practice that responsibility that builds up our nation.
So to students and parents eager to go back to school, I’d encourage you to show your commitment to the basic responsibilities of civic life during a pandemic.
That means wearing a mask for a start, and taking every step to fight the virus.
We all want to get back to normal. Demonstrations are an important part of civic life, but chanting for a return to normalcy won’t make it happen.
Mask up, and let’s all take our response to this virus seriously. We need to act together for our mutual benefit. That’s the most important first step to safely getting back to the shared common life we crave.
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Brain Mittge wears a mask when he emerges from his home in rural Chehalis. Drop him a line at brianmittge@hotmail.com.
